QAnon influencers are now reportedly defrauding their followers via cryptocurrency scams

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://mashable.com/article/qanon-influencers-crypto-scams

You may not have heard very much about QAnon in recent months, but believers in the right-wing conspiracy theory are very much still around.

And those believers are proving to be easy-to-dupe marks for influential QAnon promoters looking to make money.

Two QAnon influencers are using their cachet within their conspiratorial communities to prey on their followers and bilk them out of millions of dollars via cryptocurrency scams, according to a new report by the tech-based fact-checking firm Logically.

Using their large followings on Telegram, QAnon influencers Whiplash347 and PatriotQakes have promoted numerous fraudulent tokens to their followers on the messaging platform. The two, along with other leaders in the chats, frequently weaponize QAnon conspiracy theories in order to sucker their fans into investing in their various cryptocurrency schemes.

According to Logically's research, the two mainly use their Telegram channels to run their scams. Whiplash347, an anonymous QAnon influencer, has built a Telegram channel with 277,000 subscribers thanks to his promotion of QAnon conspiracy theories over the years. PatriotQakes — who, unlike Whiplash347, has also gone by her real name, Emily Tang — also runs the Quantum Stellar Initiative (QSI) Telegram channel, which has 30,000 subscribers.

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My response to those scammed:

[TlalocW]

1. This is what Cawthorn did with LGBCoin

He invested in it, talked it up even on the House floor, and then cashed out leaving the suckers who invested because they believe and admire him holding the bag, and it happens all the time. Some conservative will look further down to the right on the political spectrum, see what people there are afraid of and come up with a scam product to sell to them. Jim Bakker isn't storing up his food buckets in his mansion or taking colloidal silver to cure all his ailments. I honestly cannot think of an equivalent situation on the left. The best I can do is get really stereotypical, and maybe the "trippy-drippy hippies" who sell crystals or maybe the marijuana entrepreneurs who claim their bud is a panacea for everything that ails ya, but they actually believe it and follow their own advice.

Can anyone think of anything like this on our side?